All successful real estate transactions have a buyer and a seller interested in getting a deal done.  While sometimes it is a win-win situation where both sides feel it was a fair transaction, sometimes the balance of power has shifted due to market conditions.  When that happens, one side is able to get a better deal than the other side and if you’re like our clients, you’d much rather be the one getting the good deal!

We reviewed the April, 2023 stats from the Toronto Regional Real Estate Board to identify where within the GTA the best and worst deals are right now.  Let’s get into it.

First, the methodology.

We looked at a few different statistics to figure out where the best and worst deals are right now.

Competition drives prices up and one sure way to see where it’s a good place to be a seller (and a bad place to be a buyer) is to look for what areas have the lowest level of active listings.  If there isn’t much to choose from, all sellers get higher prices for their property than they would in a market where buyers have tons of options.

The other stat that tells us how competitive a market in at a given time is how long it takes the average property to sell.  The days on market stat shows us exactly where buyers need to move quickly and pay more for real estate, and conversely the market where sellers can expect a lengthy time on the market before selling at a price they may not be thrilled to receive.

Finally, the sale to new listing ratio tracks how much of the sales taking place are being replaced by new listings.  At 100%, the number of active listings at the end of the month is exactly the same at the beginning of the month, with the same new listings having come on board as the home that sold and went off the market.  This stat heavily influences buyer and seller sentiment as the more options that come on the market and the more homes that don’t sell, the less buyers feel pressured to up their price and the more sellers feel obligated to take any offer seriously.

Let’s see how the GTA (or more accurately, all of the Toronto Regional Real Estate Board’s territory – Toronto, York, Peel, Durham, Halton, Dufferin and Simcoe) stacks up and where the best (and worst) deals are being found right now.

Active Listings

The number of active listings in any given market is of course a function of the size of the market.  As such, we’re not simply picking the market with the most active listings.  Instead, let’s look at how they’re doing now compared to the last year.

Best for Buyers (highest level of options)

Simcoe is the big winner of you’re a buyer looking to buy a home these days, as the current level of active listings is just 2% lower than a year ago.  That may seem like a bad thing, but given across the GTA the level of inventory is down very significantly, the fact that Simcoe area buyers still have pretty much the same level of options as a year ago means that they can afford to push on the price they offer.

Best for Sellers (lowest level of competition)

It’s Peel where sellers have the best situation right now in terms of competition.  A year ago, buyers would have had over 2,500 options if they were looking to buy a property, but right now they have under 1,700.  That’s a full third less inventory on the market and sellers will absolutely be benefiting from buyers having far fewer choices than they’re used to having at this time of year.

Days on Market

The days on market stat is pretty straight forward.  The quicker a home sells, the more competitive that market feels and the more buyers have to pay to make sure they’re the one who snatches the home they love.  Let’s look at where it’s best and worst in the GTA.

Best for Buyers (longest time properties are sitting on the market)

Once again, it’s Simcoe that sees the best opportunity for buyers.  The average days on market in Simcoe is now at 27 days and that’s more than two weeks longer than properties lasted a year ago, when the average DOM was just 11 days.

Best for Sellers (quickest time properties are selling in the market)

The best location for sellers these days based on the days on market is Durham.  With an average days on market of just 12 days, Durham is currently  the fastest paced market in the GTA, easily beating out Toronto where it is 18 days on average.  Sellers in the Durham market know that their property will sell quickly and when you’ve got a lot of attention and interest from motivated buyers, prices absolutely go up.

Sales to New Listing Ratio

Finally, the sales to new listing ratio (SNLR) is a great way to see how much activity is actually taking place in the market.  When listings aren’t sitting around and the level of turnover means what was there one day is likely gone soon, buyers feel pressured to make decisions quickly and pay more.  Let’s see how the big winner and loser is based on this stat.

Best for Buyers (lowest level of turnover)

Our friends in Simcoe win the triple play by being the best option within the GTA for buyers based on the SNLR.  The SNLR in Simcoe was 62%, with 428 new listings hitting the market but only 265 sales.  If you’re a buyer in Simcoe, you would be seeing lots of new options but not nearly as many sales taking place and you’d feel more confident that you don’t to pay more for a property you like, because another will come along soon.

Best for Sellers (highest level of turnover)

The clear winner in this category is the Dufferin real estate market, with a staggering 96.6% SNLR.  In the most recent month of activity, they saw 59 new listings hit the market and they saw 57 sales take place.  That results in only 46 active listings so if you’re a buyer in Dufferin, you’re seeing “everything” sell and the level of options you have drop quickly.  The result is pressure to pay more and that’s a very good situation for any Dufferin area sellers.

For buyers, Simcoe was the clear winner based on this review.  A reasonable level of active listings for you to choose from, a slower-paced market where you have time to let sellers start to worry about not selling and a good amount of new listings coming on board for you to consider.

On the seller side, we had a range of best places, with Peel, Durham and Dufferin each snagging one of our coveted “Best of” trophies.    If we had to name one place where it’s currently the best to be a seller, we’d probably go with Durham as the stats in a number of categories point towards a strong seller’s market there.

If you’re looking to buy or sell, we work all over the GTA and we track what’s going on in each market.  Get in touch with us if you want to figure out the best option for you!

A quick way to identify appealing areas is to look at the media sale prices for different parts of an area and see where the most expensive homes are located.   We looked into it and thought we would share the results!

Before we do, let’s take a brief foray into how the Toronto Regional Real Estate Board (TRREB) categorizes areas.

Sorry, where is that?

When you look at the total area contained within the Toronto Regional Real Estate Board’s geography, there are three progressively smaller categories :  Area, Municipality and Community.

The largest category is Area and this corresponds very closely to regional municipalities.  There are seven areas within the TRREB boundaries:

• Toronto
• Peel
• Halton
• York
• Durham
• Dufferin
• Simcoe

The next level down is what TRREB calls Municipalities.  With the exception of Toronto, TRREB municipalities are essentially towns or cities.  The TREB municipalities are as follows:

• Peel – Caledon, Brampton, Mississauga
• Halton – Halton Hills, Milton, Oakville, Burlington
• York – Aurora, East Gwillimbury, Georgina, Georgina Islands, King, Markham, Newmarket, Richmond Hill, Vaughan, Whitchurch-Stoufville
• Durham – Ajax, Brock, Clarington, Oshawa, Pickering, Scugog, Scugog 34, Uxbridge, Whitby
• Dufferin – Amaranth, East Garafraxa, East Luther Grand Valley, Melancthon, Mono, Mulmur, Orangeville, Shelburne
• Simcoe – Adjala-Tosorontio, Barrie, Bradford West-Gwillimbury, Christian Island 30, Clearview, Collingwood, Essa, Innisfil, Midland, New Tecumseth, Orillia, Oro-Medonte, Penetanguishene, Rama First Nation 32, Ramara, Severn, Springwater, Wasaga Beach

With a few exceptions the above are likely names you’re familiar with as towns and cities in the GTA.

Within Toronto, the density of population means that TRREB needed to create artificial boundaries to divide up the city.  They did this by labelling areas central, east or west and then adding number designations.

The final, smallest category that TRREB uses within its geography is called Communities.  Unfortunately, how TREB defines these areas is not consistent with how residents define their local area.

Sometimes the description matches what residents use, such as the Mount Pleasant area in Toronto.  Sometimes, it’s a name that no one in the neighbourhood has ever heard of, such as the Sherwood-Amberglen area of Markham.

In other cases, the name is the same as what local residents call their area, but the area itself has different boundaries.  Fletcher’s Creek Village in Brampton is quite a small area according to TREB, but many residents of the surrounding MLS communities also describe themselves as living in Fletcher’s Creek.

If you want to see an interactive map that shows the TRREB areas, municipalities and communities, you can do so here.

Now, let’s follow the money and find the best areas (i.e. the most expensive areas) to live in the GTA.

We’re going to use the median price rather than the average price, as the median (the middle number of all the prices from high to low) is less likely to be affected by outliers that are extremely high or low.  All of these stats are from the latest market data from February 2023.

One final caveat – we are calling these the best places to live, but of course the best place to live is far more individualized than simply the highest price.  Don’t fret if your home isn’t in the “best” place in your area.  We’re sure it’s still lovely.

Where’s the best area in Toronto?

In Toronto West, the best place to live is W07, with a median price of $1,249,000.  That’s basically the Kingsway Village, which is the west end of Bloor, south down to the Queensway.  Some gorgeous houses on big lots and close to a really great stretch of a retail street.

In Toronto Central, the best place to live is C09, with a median price of $2,052,800.  This is the Rosedale and Moore Park part of Toronto and it’s that area north of Bloor and east of Yonge.  With the Don Valley to the east and parks and creeks running through parts of it, definitely a very popular part of the city and the prices reflect it!

In Toronto East, the best place to live is E02, with a median price of $1,269,522.  This is the Beaches area of Toronto and is where our real estate brokerage is located.  Great neighbourhood in very high demand.

Despite the highest median price in the city being located in a Toronto Central community (C09), Toronto Central is also the lowest overall median price in the city, at $800,000.  The west end comes in at $862,500 and the east end is the highest at $950,000.  This is likely reflective of the fact that it is the centre of the city where the most condo buildings are located, so the affordability is better.

Let’s check out the best areas around the GTA.

In Peel, the best place to live is Caledon, with a median price of $1,093,000.   That might be a surprise, but Brampton and Mississauga are pretty close in median price ($880K in Mississauga and $955K in Brampton) and while Caledon has fewer people, it has bigger, arguably nicer properties.

In Halton, the best place to live is Oakville, with a median price of $1,360,000.  This is what most people would expect we think.  While Milton has been in the news for price increases on more than a few occasions, Oakville is a very wealthy town and real estate is priced accordingly.

In York, the best place to live is King, with a median price of $2,040,000.  Similar to Caledon in Peel, this might be a surprise as towns like Aurora have a reputation for high prices.  King township has lots of estates and very high prices as a result.

In Durham, the best place to live is Uxbridge, with a median price of $1,005,000.  Uxbridge is just north of Pickering and is a surprising winner in Durham.  It’s the only area that managed to get over $1M for the media price.

In Dufferin, the best place to live is Orangeville, with a median price of $812,808.  To be fair, in Dufferin, the only area with enough stats to be included is Orangeville.  Still, a lovely town with a great historic downtown.

In Simcoe, the best place to live is Bradford West Gwillimbury, with a median price of $962,000.  The proximity to York Region and spillover from those expensive markets, such as King, makes the southern part of Simcoe the most expensive median price.

If you were looking for the best part of the GTA to live in, it is York Region that takes that honour, with a median price of $1,215,000.  That beats out Toronto (at $850,000 median price for the city as a whole) as well as all the other parts of the GTA.

While using the median price for real estate as a proxy for the best parts of a given area is a fun exercise, it doesn’t take into account the specifics of what makes a given home the best for the people who choose to live in the home.  If you are thinking about making a move and want to make sure that you get the best for you, then let’s talk.